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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Turns out that Justice Elena Kagan has been hunting with Justice Scalia, not once but several times. I saw a reference to this last week but did not take time to read the linked article, which appeared Thursday on CNN's web site. The article was about an address Justice Kagan gave to an audience at Beth Tfiloh Congregation, which was celebrating its 90th anniversary. She talked about her faith (she is Jewish), the court, and she even admitted to having gone on several hunting trips with Justice Scalia.

We knew from this story last year that sources had spotted her shooting clay targets at Fairfax Rod and Gun Club with Scalia. Justice Scalia is a member of Fairfax Rod and Gun Club, a VSSA affiliated club.

The article detailed how Kagan recalled a courtesy visit she paid to Sen. Benjamin Cardin, (D-Maryland), who is a member of Beth Tfiloh, shortly after her nomination to the court. During the discussion Cardin asked her about gun rights, and told her she would likely find out how important the issue is to some Americans. She told him she had never owned or fired a firearm but that if she were fortunate enough to be confirmed she would go hunting with Justice Scalia.

And, the article confirmed she accompanied Scalia to a "Washington-area shooting range" as well as "several" hunting trips, which until last Thursday, were never reported. Further, it seems that she has had the same reaction as many women do the first time they go shooting and/or hunting. When her host at Beth Tfiloh expressed shock at her admission she responded:

...it turns out, it's kind of fun," said Kagan, laughing.

I'm not going to read too much into this as there are a number of elected representatives at both the state and federal level who are avid hunters and even use that to claim they support the Second Amendment, but have a less than stellar voting record on Second Amendment related issues.

Having said this, let's hope Scalia is also giving her a little constitutional history lesson on the drive to and from the field.